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I saw Gillian Jacobs in a movie Life Partners which I really enjoyed and I really like her.

Can I just say that I really didn't like Gus? I liked his character as a passive aggressive, insecure, simmeringly hostile jerk and thought it was really interesting that initially he seems like the nice awkward nerd and Mickey would be the hot mean girl when really she feels guilt more than Gus, cares more about him than he does about her and is basically just a huge addict for every part of her life. I thought it was a really refreshing spin on the Hot Girl with...uhh...Not Hot Guy.

I do feel mean thinking that Gus is just not attractive in any way. He's not cute, he's not interesting, he's not even nice. He's definitely not funny. He's just soooo passive aggressive and kinda nasty and shallow.

Whereas I LOOOVE Mickey and I've read reviews with people feeling the exact opposite. She uses sex to try to force people to be intimate and affectionate and loving with her. It's sad and she's destructive and selfish and can be narcissistic but she's also somewhat self aware, not malicious and actually extremely guilt ridden and no where near as entitled as Gus.

I really enjoyed this show though. Really enjoyed getting to know the characters and analysing them and picking apart their actions.

What I really enjoyed about Love, and a lot of Apatows work , is that relationships and peoples attraction to others aren't based on the standard hollywood formula of 2 people liking each other because they are pretty, but usually due to 2 people who seem to fill a hole in the other person (not literally.. ok maybe literally a bit)

In Love you have Gus who somehow miraculously manages to get 2 hot girls to like him, despite being a really horrible little human being. You aren't supposed to like him, that much is clear. At first you think its the standard nerd story of that good guy who isn't appreciated by the women around him, but then you notice over time that actually hes a malicious, self centred, passive aggressive little biter of a character, totally unlikable.

But Mickey is into him, not because of any of his actual good qualities, but because of the ones she imagines he has, what she imagines a relationship with him will be like compared to her previous ones. Also she likes how she imagines she will be with him, despite not really being attracted to him.

Then finally when she screws things up and Gus acts indifferently to her, she only becomes more attracted and more obsessive about him. Again, not because he is attractive, but because she is trying to get rid of the feelings he is creating inside of her, which she finds painful.

I've seen a lot of this in real life, its kind of how people work, but nobody likes to admit it. We like to think of love as magical and romantic and something exterior to us, but in reality its a mix of all of our own emotions about ourselves and others.

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Oh I totally agree with everything you've said and that's why I'm not agreeing with a lot of the bad reviews for this show. Maybe the title is confusing people because this is Not A Love Story and the ending is Not A Happy One. I'm not even sure if that is what the show is going for? It hasn't really seemed to shy away from the fact that Gus is unlikeable. Two people have told him he is fake nice. He's admitted no one grows to like him. The lady in the garage couldn't stand him - hardly anyone he works with likes him except for a lonely 12 year old girl and the food guy who is admittedly not intuitive with people and whose sage advice includes: "nothing dries up a vagina like a paragraph" LMAO. He is universally not likeable. I don't know how he managed to have a group of seemingly quite nice and funny people save for none of them has ever tried to be in a romantic relationship with him.

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Whereas Micky is a sex and love addict. She latches on to sex as a form of affection and love when it's not so she acts overly into guys (a lot of ugly mean ones) who have sex with her even though she doesn't like them. So when she first meets Gus he's sort of sweet and offbeat and appears to be down on his luck and nice. And so she fantasizes about him and what it would be like to have someone that is actually nice to you and likes you and cares about you. Her stalking his facebook page broke my heart. I knew exactly what she was doing and why. She panics and freaks out about things and uses sex to try to get people to be closer to her. She repeatedly makes reference to when Gus has had sex with her.

I'm really interested to hear what people think of the ending. I don't know how the show is tryig to portray these characters but I hope the ending isn't supposed to be romantic. It's messed up and realistic though.

Mickey, panicked and remorseful desperately tracks down a gloomy (because of his own fucking weirdness in work...asshole) Gus and sincerely apologizes to him and although they don't really know each other all that well she discloses very intimate and personal information about herself. She tells him she is an addict. A drug addict, an alcoholic a love and sex addict. She then says she wants to sort herself out and take a year out to be by herself (like the lady at the Sex and Love Addicts meeting) and automatically Gus takes advantage of this. He takes advantage of her weaknesses and vulnerability because he feels shitty and she's hot and he kisses her. After the information she's just imparted to him the kind thing would have been to thank her for her honesty, forgive her and maybe give her a hug and wish her the best with her life. This isn't romantic what he does. He's lonely and he feels shitty and for some inexplicable reason this beautiful troubled girl still thinks he is a great guy and likes him.

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Also loved the freakin E from Eels cameo. Brilliant. Who wouldn't wanna jam out with that guy? I really loved the JET! scene at the party. I just liked that whole party episode. Except for just NOT understanding how so many hot girls seem to be interested in Gus. Gosh I feel so nasty and shallow - I swear it's mostly because he's so pathetic and BORING than him just not being attractive physically and his annoying voice. He'd be fine if he genuinely WAS nice and sweet. He'd be like adorably nerdy and that's probably what they were going for at the start buy by the end we see just how nasty, socially pathetic, boring, insecure and hostile he really is.

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Oh I totally agree with everything you've said and that's why I'm not agreeing with a lot of the bad reviews for this show. Maybe the title is confusing people because this is Not A Love Story and the ending is Not A Happy One. I'm not even sure if that is what the show is going for? It hasn't really seemed to shy away from the fact that Gus is unlikeable. Two people have told him he is fake nice. He's admitted no one grows to like him. The lady in the garage couldn't stand him - hardly anyone he works with likes him except for a lonely 12 year old girl and the food guy who is admittedly not intuitive with people and whose sage advice includes: "nothing dries up a vagina like a paragraph" LMAO. He is universally not likeable. I don't know how he managed to have a group of seemingly quite nice and funny people save for none of them has ever tried to be in a romantic relationship with him.

I didn't realise there were bad reviews? Hmm, thats unfortunate. I think maybe with a title like 'Love' people get the wrong impression of what they are about to see. It also starts off in quite a traditional sense and you start looking forward to this cute love story. It isn't that.

I actually think Gus' fake nice performance is actually really great. The way he shies away from actual confrontation and tries to be so utterly diplomatic most of the time is utterly cringe worthy. I especially hate it when he does those kooky funny exaggerations in every sentence, that way people are scared you won't like them if you don't act funny all the time. Well observed.

But thats actually a good point. There is an issue in that he seemingly manages to make friends quite easily and have people like him, even though he has few redeeming features. Its hard to see why he attracts people in that way, I guess on a shallow level he can be reasonably fun and friendly so he can fit into friendly groups well.

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I'm really interested to hear what people think of the ending. I don't know how the show is tryig to portray these characters but I hope the ending isn't supposed to be romantic. It's messed up and realistic though.

Really liked your take on Micky. Thats exactly how I see her. The staying up all night looking at Facebook thing is just something that I think everyone does at some point. She seems to have something missing inside of her, what I really think is that shes very internally focussed, she mainly cares about herself and her own feelings and uses people to help her feel better ( the way she abused her flatmate is very reminiscent of some people I know. ) Might be a bit airy fairy of me but I think if she could think outside of her own problems for a bit she'd be a lot happier. Though clearly shes had a rough life.

Anyway, about the ending. I agree, its set up like this romantic ending, kind of standard. But the fact that she tells him she needs to have a year off to sort herself out, and he ignores that and instead kisses her.. well it just shows how they are both so disgustingly internally focussed and less interested in the other person being happy than on themselves. A great scene. It had all the hallmarks of romance, but was actually the exact opposite. Maybe I'm cynical but thats how I view a lot of real life romance, lots of over the top gestures that are actually acts of selfishness.

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Also loved the freakin E from Eels cameo. Brilliant. Who wouldn't wanna jam out with that guy? I really loved the JET! scene at the party. I just liked that whole party episode. Except for just NOT understanding how so many hot girls seem to be interested in Gus. Gosh I feel so nasty and shallow - I swear it's mostly because he's so pathetic and BORING than him just not being attractive physically and his annoying voice. He'd be fine if he genuinely WAS nice and sweet. He'd be like adorably nerdy and that's probably what they were going for at the start buy by the end we see just how nasty, socially pathetic, boring, insecure and hostile he really is.

I did NOT notice that! Thought he was great though.

Yeah the amount of hot girls interested in Gus was a common thing I've seen many complain about the show, and its pretty valid. Except that like I said, their attraction to him is almost a reaction to their previous relationships and current situation. Micky wants to sort herself out and not be screwed over by deadbeat arseholes, so picks the sweet harmless guy who couldn't possibly hurt her because she will be too good for him.

Heidi was the less believable of the two, she was hot and funny and popular. But she also had that incredibly false showy element you get with drama school girls, again another well observed element of the show. She was feeling vunerable and lonely and maybe had a lot of issues as well, which made me overlook that contrivance.

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I can get Mickey being into Gus initially due to her problems. I totally buy that. I don't buy random cool girls at parties wanting to bone him though. I don't know if he is shown to make friends that easily. He has a good group of 'cool nerds' friends but it seems a lot of them might have came through his other two friends there, cori(??) and the dude who lives in his building. Because most of the time Gus is unbearable. And like I said the only people in work who like him is a 12 year old girl and a person who claims to not be at all intuitive with other people. At first I thought the people he worked with were dicks but the more I got to know Gus the more I totally understood their attitudes around him. He's this weird awkward annoying dude always hanging around feeling to everyone else. Arya put it perfect when she "every idea he has about the show is completely wrong. He just doesnt understand the campy quality of the show"

He doesn't understand a lot of things. He doesnt understand love and relationships and expects everything to be like it is in movies. He dosnt understand the show. He doesn't understand mickey's behaviour or why his girlfriend had to basically force him to break up with her. He doesn't understand real life or social situations or how to express himself or how to be direct or anything. He's a total clueless mess and it annoys me that alot of people seem to think mickey is a crazy bitch and gus has redeeming qualities.

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If it makes you feel any better i found them both to be extremely unlikable. Her less than him, but they are both incredibly selfish and self centered people. At least she's genuine, occasionally.

I think they ARE both unlikeable. They are definitely both riddled with flaws but my god Gus was almost insufferable at times. "Ummm well...yes, no...i mean right??" God. So. Passive. And just boring and a total jerk. I really enjoyed this show tho lol.

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Mickey, panicked and remorseful desperately tracks down a gloomy (because of his own fucking weirdness in work...asshole) Gus

I thought he conned her into tracking him down. When he put up the post, my impression was that he was trying to get to Mickey. And when she shows up, he acts like he's surprised to see her because he's a manipulative jackass.

Edited March 15, 2016 by AverageGuy

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I thought he conned her into tracking him down. When he put up the post, my impression was that he was trying to get to Mickey. And when she shows up, he acts like he's surprised to see her because he's a manipulative jackass.

Oh I didn't think of that. Did he say where he was going on the instagram post? I thought he just mentioned he was gonna get food and she hoped he would go there so she turns up and apologises to him. She looks so small andtired in that last moment it made me really sad. I thought kissing her and taking advantage of her vulnerability was a total selfish dick move though